With the holiday shopping season upon us stores are preparing for the rush of consumers buying presents for the preeminent Christian holiday, Christmas (okay, so Easter is the most important Christian holiday, but Christmas is the second-most-important and commercially more popular); the most important Jewish holiday, Hanukkah (okay, so Hanukkah is a minor holiday and there's a running inside joke amongst American Jews that so much attention is lavished on a celebration that barely makes the top five); and, of course, the important African-American festival of Kwanzaa (a holiday cited by white people who are trying to revel in their inclusiveness and burnish their multicultural credentials but that is actually only celebrated by somewhere between one and five percent of the U.S. black population). But whatever. Due to the holiday season (Christmas, mostly) American consumers will be rushing to the stores very, very soon and home improvement giant Lowe's has an idea for this shopping season: a robot that assists you while you shop. I wish I was kidding. Well, maybe I don't. It does seem kind of cool. Here, a human (or as he will be hereafter refereed to, Sales Prototype A) is pictured with our successor, the Lowes robot. The new OSHbot that will debut this month in one of Lowe's Orchard Supply Hardware Stores in San Jose, California is being unveiled carefully enough that people won't become nervous about the machines displacing workers (a strategy that was set up for inevitable failure as the New Yorker, last Wednesday, mused, "Are robots coming for our jobs?". And all this as Elon Musk warns that "we are summoning the demon" with our pursuit of artificial intelligence. I think I know what's going to replace the Ebola panic. For many who don't follow the intricate details of the new world where robot-meets-paint-swatch, John Oliver covered the situation last night. While the funny Englishman poked fun at the new creation with a display at how Home Depot can profit by highlighting the ways a real-life sales associate can moderate fights between arguing couples, he does make us wonder if we are approaching future holiday seasons where robotic helpers may be more common -- that is to say that they may become common in the first place. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Season's Greetings.